Barnet Kansil (NL, 1971)

 

In her work Barnet Kansil creates transient installations of places, locations and spaces which she photographs. In doing so, she repeatedly creates a new reality: in the installation, in the picture and possibly in the imagination of the beholder.

Her work is influenced by her studies in cultural anthropology, her personal interest in cultures and myths and by the history of her Indonesian family who in the forties had to escape from Indonesia because of war and violence.

 

The project ‘Out of Place’ reflects on the theme displacement. Man is shown as a supporting actor in an unreal stagesetting, as a passer-by in an empty world.
The work is inspired by the epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest story known to man, in which displacement can be found as a theme. At the same time, Out of Place relates to current events: the condition, the lives and stories of displaced immigrants at the borders of Europe. This way current and mythical reality interweave.
 

She studied Cultural Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and Photography at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam (NL). In 2011 she was nominated for the Photo Academy Award.